Rare medical dissertation on hernias, including a highly important correspondence between the author and Johann Nicolaus Pechlin (ca. 1644-1706), with a description of one of the first post-surgical microscopic tissue examinations ever performed. The author, Ludwig von Hammen (1651-1689), was a pioneer in the field of urological surgery, and performed possibly the first partial prostatectomy in the history of medicine in 1678, which is described in the present work.
Von Hammen was born in Gdansk. He studied in Leiden, London, Oxford, Paris, Montpellier, and Bologna, but returned to his hometown in 1678. Shortly after, he was asked to assist a patient with impaired urination. He suspected a urinary tract stone, but called a surgeon rather than a lithotripsy expert, which was very uncommon at the time. During the surgery, von Hammen removed a tumour and studied it under a microscope. His description of his findings is included in the present work, and is almost detailed enough to be able to diagnose his patient in the present day. Although the microscope had been invented a few decades earlier, it had rarely been used to study diseased tissue, and the few studies that did exist were of little clinical value. Von Hammen's publication therefore stands out as an early and significant contribution to pathological research.
The wrappers show significant signs of wear, with a hole in the front wrapper, and several small drops of wax on the back. Internally mostly clean, with water staining on the first and last few leaves. Otherwise in good condition. Bibliotheca medica Neerlandica I, pp. 59 and 315; Krivatsy 5230; STCN 064032027 (6 copies); USTC 1817206 (10 copies); Wellcome II, p. 205; WorldCat 632472906, 959242593; cf. Szarszewski, Adam, "The history of Calculus Mendax and the following surgery on the prostate", in: The Prostate, 2014-11, Vol. 74 (15), pp.1465-1470.